How Healthy Are Your Boundaries?
For the past 10 years, Louisa has worked as an integrative transpersonal psychotherapist, in private practice and at the London Fire Brigade. She has specialist qualifications in cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR), emotional freedom technique (EFT), as well as relationships and the psychosexual. For the past two years, she has been learning and practising shamanic healing in a community. Through all her roles - as therapist, as healer, as client, Louisa has learnt about professional boundaries and continues to learn.
The presentation focussed on the psychology of professional boundaries; what they are and why we need them, and defining where our boundaries lie, as well as practical considerations in how to maintain them.
Louisa's talk raised some thought-provoking points and was so useful from a personal perspective, as well as a professional point of view.
Good examples of unhealthy boundaries that we can all relate to (how many of us can honestly say that we've never agreed to something when we'd really rather not) were used to illustrate which aspects of work and life might benefit from drawing up some ground rules around:
- Saying “yes” when we mean “no”
- Personal space
- Out of hours contact
- The basis of relationship – “friend” or “friendly”
- Time and money
- Self worth.
In the discussion of boundaries, we considered whether boundaries should be set in stone; a line never to be crossed, or whether there was a degree of conscious flex that could be applied and when that might be appropriate. And we looked at what happens when our boundaries are crossed and how sometimes, we are the ones that overstep our own mark.
It was certainly a subject that raised plenty of questions, shared examples, situations and suggestions.
If you have an opportunity to hear Louisa talk about healthy boundaries, we would whole-heartedly recommend it. For further information, she can be contacted on louisabeejay@yahoo.co.uk and LinkedIn.
